Muhammad Akbar Thufail, Our EU-UNPAD Ph.D. Student from Indonesia Finally Visits MECOH

On February 15th, Muhammad Akbar Thufail, a member of the International Collaborative Research Laboratory (ICRL) at Ehime University-Padjadjaran University (EU-UNPAD), visited the MECOH Lab at Ehime University. Thufail arrived as a visiting researcher for a two-week collaborative project. The main purpose of this visit was to learn about the activities in the MECOH Lab and the bioinformatics analysis performed on virome studies.

​During the visit, he was mentored by Coleen Irish Asin, a research student from MECOH, to learn the basics of bioinformatic analysis. Raw sequence results were cleaned and underwent further steps to provide valid and accurate assembled data. Wet lab techniques were also evaluated in the MECOH Lab. Together with Kenneth, a first-year doctoral student, he performed and reviewed some library preparation for sequencing methods such as MinIon and ProMetIon Sequencing.

Essential skills on bioinformatics taught by MECOH students

In addition to the lab work, Thufail also participated in educational visits during Emperor’s birthday on February 23rd to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Miyajima Island, along with Dr. Yi You Wong from Universiti Malaya in Malaysia and several visitors from De La Salle University in the Philippines. Exploring Matsuyama city and its surroundings, Thufail was accompanied by Atikah Fitria Muharromah, a third-year Doctoral student, who introduced him to life and activities in the prefecture.

We managed to celebrate Prof. Kozo's birthday too!

The visit concluded on February 28th, with the completion of the basic course on bioinformatics analysis. 
We look forward to working closer by further improving and validating the ICRL Projects in Indonesia.